Wales invests $60M in regional HPC capability

Alert reader Bill Feiereisen sent me a note today pointing to this piece in NewsWales about a significant investment being made to create a regional HPC capability in Wales in the UK. £40 million, about $60.6M USD today, is being invested from a combination of sources including the EU, the UK Department for Business, Innovation and Skills, and private sources to create the capability.

Cutting-edge computing facilities will be available for use by businesses working independently or in collaboration with academics and will establish Wales as a key international centre for specialist computational research, said the Assembly Government today.

Known as High Performance Computing Wales (HPC Wales), it will consist of three elements – investment in high performance computing equipment, infrastructure and pan-Wales distribution networks ; a training academy to develop high performance computing skills, and an institute to provide high level technical services to support research and economic activities.

It’s interesting to me that the proposed solution is full spectrum — it including the computers and networks one would expect, but also includes training and consulting services. The project is a collaboration of Welsh universities, and is being pursued to ensure the research competitiveness of those universities

“It will ensure that researchers, students and businesses have access to state-of-the-art, high performance computing, that is required to undertake the internationally recognised research that drives the knowledge economy and underpins the Welsh agenda in crucial sectors such as health, science, engineering and advanced manufacturing.

According to this video at the BBC, the supercomputer will be the most powerful in the UK outside the government. The video also talks up the economic development angle of the project, working in the story of a video gaming company who would benefit along with job creation and skills elevation angles.

Resource Links:

Latest Video

Industry Perspectives

"Exascale computers are going to deliver only one or two per cent of their theoretical peak performance when they run real applications; and both the people paying for, and the people using, such machines need to have realistic expectations about just how low a percentage of the peak performance they will obtain." [Read More...]